Behind the Scenes: Chernobyl

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It was the deadliest nuclear power plant disasters in history affecting thousands of people throughout Europe. The total amount of people who died from this tragedy in the months and years following the accident remain debatable since the Soviet Union worked hard to keep this information secret. What we do know is it rendered an area around one-thousand square miles useless, known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Visiting this place was probably one of the coolest but also creepiest experiences I’ve had. It is a place where people are not permanently allowed to live because of the potential radiation dangers following the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster (there are a couple hundred self-settlers who snuck back to their homes).

We got hooked up with a group, Chernobyl Tour based out of Kiev, Ukraine to take us around the Exclusion Zone. For the most part this place looks normal. Nature is abundant with trees, open fields and wildlife. Even in the town of Chernobyl which is located about nine miles away from the power plant there are signs of human life. Radiation levels here are said to have returned to pre-Chernobyl levels. Hotels have guests, cars are out on the road, and men dressed in camouflage clothing are seen doing work. Some people are now able to spend as much as a half year here now.

In Pripyat, a city located only a couple miles from the power plant it’s a different story. It’s a wasteland. Buildings are left vacant. It was spooky walking through here and being quite honest spending a night here would freak me out. Many things were left behind by former residents adding to the scary feel of this place. Trees are growing out of the floor in many of these abandoned buildings, creepy dolls left behind still hold the same stare, and even clothes are still hung up in the same place they were left 30 years ago.

The best way to really explain this is to actually show you. So, Maggie and I are taking you behind the scenes during our visit to this place of mystery.